


The Boy Next Door

by exe_mikhailo1



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Best Friends, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood Friends, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Ian Gallagher Loves Mickey Milkovich, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Neighbors, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poverty, Slow Burn, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-06-24 00:08:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15618066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exe_mikhailo1/pseuds/exe_mikhailo1
Summary: Two young boys who wanted nothing more than to be loved. And when they couldn't find it in themselves or the people around them, always found it in the Boy Next Door.





	The Boy Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> Ian and Mickey kids AU - Feedback is always appreciated! (updating tags as the story proceeds) *TBND*

* * *

 

The fuck's that noise?

Mickey thought to himself, after being rudely awoken by the irksome sound of Kids shouting and laughing from outside of his window. Taking a swift glance at his old alarm clock reading  **12:40PM,** he rolled out of his bed in aggravation to investigate the racket. He looked out of his window through tired eyes, seeing exactly what he thought he'd heard...a bunch of kids, which surprisingly enough, Mickey hadn't expected. His neighbors were an old Indian couple that didn't have any kids of their own, so he wondered why were there a bunch playing around in their garden. There was no way they were family, they never had visitors of any sort. Besides, the kids in the garden were far too fair for there to be any kind of blood relation, so he could cross that right off of his list...

Mickey's eyes were immediately fixed on one of the kids. It was a curly-haired ginger boy who appeared to be around his age, so he watched him for a moment as he played a game with an older-looking brunette boy. They were each holding some sort of light-up stick and using them as battle swords. He would never play something like that with his little sister Mandy, she cried at everything. Besides, If he'd accidentally hit her, well... he'd be answering to his dad. It made him wish he had someone his age he could do that sort of stuff with, another brother maybe? Someone to push around and bully yet still hang out with and relate to would be ideal.

Snapping out of his pensive state, Mickey noticed the two had brought their game to a seeming halt and began engaging in conversation over something that was too difficult hear, so Mickey opened his window slightly so he could listen in too.

***

"Lip i don't wanna play this game anymore!" the ginger boy whined, chucking his toy light-saber to the ground.

"Okay...so what _do_ you wanna play? Your choice." He reasoned, placing his own next to the fallen.

The boy pondered carefully before eventually coming up with a game.

"Lets play Tales Of Our Mind again!" 

Lip chuckled.

"Alright, you wanna continue where we left off or restart?"

"Continue!"

"Ian, You sure? our last game was _pretty_   wild."

"Continue!" The smaller boy repeated, a little more impatient.

"Alright, alright!" He said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "where did we leave off?"

"I was stranded on a tiny island and needed you to come to my rescue, but you had to fight through the flying zombies first!" He reminded him, as he rushed to stand in his younger sisters tiny mobile sand pit.

"Oh yeah!" Lip retrieved his light-saber from the grass and began waving it forcefully through the air. "Take that you piece of zombie shit!" 

"Hey! Language" A taller brunette warned as she watched the two play from the top of the garden porch, a young baby boy slung to her left hip. Mickey wondered if that was their mom. 

"Nothing to drink! No food! I'm gonna shrivel up and die!" Ian cried, throwing the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically.

"Don't worry Ian! ill save you!...The Mighty Lip had finished slaying the flying zombies and had finally made it to Super Ian's rescue!" He declared proudly.

"Suddenly, Lip was caught by ... a bunch of wild orangutans that wanted to keep him prisoner and force him to do their laundry!" 

Lip was slightly caught off guard and confused, however, since it _was_ an improve game, and he _did_  want to keep Ian happy, like the admirable older brother he is, went along with it anyway.

"Uhh... Oh no! i hope i get to Ian in-"

"Super Ian!" He corrected with a harsh, out of character whisper.

"Super Ian! in time!... I know, ill impale them with my ferocious sword!" He began using jabbing motions with his toy light-saber.

"Out of no where, one of the orangutans snatched The Mighty Lips sword and swallowed it up! Leaving him with nothing but his bare hands..." Ian said, covering his eyes in fear.

The _real_   Lip began to grow irritated at his younger brothers inconvenient scenario ideas. 

"The Mighty Lip quickly transformed into an; untouchable, mega powerful, immortal being who killed every single orangutan with his mind-blowing eye lasers! He bellowed, releasing shooting sounds from his mouth with every direction he looked in.

"No that's cheating!" Ian said, folding his arms. Lip sighed. 

"Well what am i supposed to do when-"

"OH NO!" He cried, cutting him off. "The Mighty Lip took too long and Super Ian was dying, he hadn't eaten for 6 whole hours! why! why!" Ian proceeded to choke and fall to the sand in agony. "WATER! WATER!" 

He twitched and threw his hand into the air as he pretended to grasp for his life, before eventually, 'dying' with a thud. Mickey watched from the window with apprehension. This never happened to him? he had gone _days_ without eating anything at all never mind hours!

Lip started to clap. 

"Well done Super Ian, what a show!" He applauded, Ian still not moving. "Alright, you can get up now!"

He still didn't budge.

"Fine, suit yourself..."

"Good you guys wrapped it up. Its lunch, come on, inside!" The girl began making her way back into the house.

"Coming Fiona!" Lip called back, as he ran in after her. Everyone had left the garden except Ian who was still lying there, playing dead and after a short-while, began to get a little bored, so once he was sure everyone was gone, he rolled over onto his back and looked up at the morning sky.

 _"Shit!"_   Mickey cried ducking down from the window as quickly as he possibly could, praying to the gods the boy hadn't caught him spying like 'some weirdo.'

Ian watched the window above in puzzlement. He could have sworn he saw just someone there?...

Oh well.

He thought, as he got up and finally followed the rest of his family inside for lunch. Mickey made sure he waited _a while_ before slowly peering from beneath the windowsill to see Ian had left.  _Phew!_

***

It was midday, meaning it was time for Mickey to check-up on his younger sister, Mandy. Leaving her to her own devices for too long was never the way to go, she'd either end up accidentally killing herself trying to create a fun game out of dangerous objects or do something to land her in deep shit with their dad, either way was a straight up death sentence and he didn't want to be around to see something like that happen. Embarking on his hourly routine, he spotted his sisters door, already wide open and her room completely vacant. Mickey figured if she wasn't in her room she was definitely downstairs, so began to make his way. Upon reaching the end, Mickey was slapped across the face with a smell so ripe he almost gagged. The putrid, almost indescribable stench nearly took him out as he hurriedly scurried past his sleeping father who was slumped lazily across their living room sofa, empty beer glass in hand still dripping rhythmically onto the floor.

Mickey opened the kitchen window as far as it would possibly go and tried his best to locate the source of the malodorous smell lingering through his home. He searched the empty cupboards, the trash can, under the sink, even the floor for undiscovered spills, but still nothing. It at last occurred to him that the unpleasant aroma was actually deriving from the living room. With each step he took, the louder the snores and stronger the smell became. Unveiling his nose from the collar of his vest, he lent over the couch and took in a deep whiff before stammering backwards in utter disgust. Mickey flung his hand over his mouth foreshadowing the presumed future events. Was the smell really coming from his dad? he couldn't believe a human being could even be held responsible for a smell this bad! He thought for sure he'd uncover either a decomposing rat or an out of date stake camping out underneath the couch. Returning to his feet, Mickey cautiously made his way 'round to the front of the sofa, putting everything he had into making sure he didn't awaken his sleeping dad. Observing his parent with scrutiny he noticed he was lying face down with both his legs hanging over the sofa arm, clad in nothing but a pair of grey boxer shorts.

_soiled boxer shorts..._

_"_  Fuuuck" he muttered, taking three careful steps back. How did his dad not know that he was sleeping in his own pool of shit? Mickey re-covered his nose giving his dad one last once over before making his way back upstairs. 'The hell was he doin' down there any way?' he thought. Mickey never went downstairs, except for when...

Shit, Mandy!

He'd forgotten all about her! Mickey quickly checked the bathroom figuring that's the only other place she could be since he didn't see her downstairs, and so when he saw the room was completely empty, began to internally panic. Where on earth was she? there wasn't anywhere else she could be.

Unless...

Mickey stood unnervingly still when he reached outside the door of his dad's bedroom. Going in there was strictly forbidden and would do nothing but earn you the beat down of your life. Mandy knew that, so why was Mickey stood on the other side of the door hoping she was inside. He carefully pressed his ear against it and listened intently when he heard distant sounds of rummaging. Mickey burst through the door like the FBI to collect his sister when a sight so shocking glued him right to his spot. There she was, beside her dad's bedside drawer, G18 in hand.

"Mandy what the fuck do you think you're doin'! Put that shit back right now!"

"Mickey! Look!" She exclaimed with the kind of smile Mickey hadn’t seen on her in a hot minute. "I think its loaded!"

"Mandy, this is real fuckin' bad. You need to put that back _exactly_   where you found it. We shouldn't even be in here! Do you know what would happen if dad-"

"Bla Bla Bla" She taunted, interrupting him mid-sentence "He's passed out on the sofa with shit glued to his ass, i think ill be fine. I'm not stupid..." Mandy began to examine the gun and play around with parts.

"If he find's anything out of place, we're both dead, you know that right?" 

"Not if we kill him" She said simply. Mickey was in utter dismay. He was lost for words. Did she really just say that?. Mandy picked up on her older brother's evident state of shock.

"Mickey calm down, i was kidding!" She reassured, returning the gun back to the safety of the top draw.

Mickey let out jittery breath's of relief. He thought he'd lost her for a second.

"Don't even think about pulling shit like this again, it's way too risky." He warned.

"Whatever." She exited the room, and strutted off into her own.

Mickey looked around making sure everything was perfectly in place before slowly shutting the door and making his way back to his bedroom.

***

About half an hour had passed and Mickey was still slumped face down on his bed daydreaming about god knows what since there wasn't much else he could do. Shifting uncomfortably at the sudden interruption of his growling stomach, he decided he would draw, figuring it would not only put his hunger at ease, but occupy his mind. It always did. Drawing gave Mickey a sense of escape, it made him feel as if he was the only person existing beyond the throng of other organisms scattered across the earth. Almost like he finally had a taste of living under his own control, and being able to choose and navigate what happened next, in his drawing's, truly made him feel like the king of the world. Mickey was particularly skilled at it too, well, according to Mandy that was. He'd gifted his dad a drawing he had worked hard on for days once before only to discover it being used as his personal ashtray...never, again. 

The kinds of pictures Mickey would produce were that of which the average child his age would find extremely unsettling. To the naked eye of your everyday, mediocre person, his drawing's were something worthy of great concern. But to someone like Mickey and Mandy, it was _Art._  He began to sketch his pencil swiftly along the piece of crumpled paper, using his free hand to rotate the page where he felt necessary. It was already beginning to come together. He enjoyed looking at the direct depictions of his thoughts on paper, one thing out of place meant it was ruined and time to start from scratch. Satisfied with the out line of his drawing, he began to shade in the corners when...

SLAM

"What the fuck!" Mickey yelled, ducking down in fear.

"Shit! Look what you did, dumbass." 

Mickey slowly raised his head from beneath the shield of his arms and looked down at his now-destroyed drawing. He could hear faint arguing coming from outside of his window.

"You kicked the fucking ball over and now one of us is going to have to knock and ask for it back..."

"We could just climb over?"

"Ian, this is the South side, gettin' shot for trespassing? No thanks."

"Well i'm not going" 

Mickey cautiously walked over towards the window and saw the two boys he'd seen earlier arguing.

"You're the one who kicked it over!" 

"It was an accident!" Ian replied defensively.

"Well, seem's like there's only one way to settle this...gotta flip a coin"

Ian sighed, he always lost at this game but knew it was only fair. "Fine" he said in agreement.

"Head's i win, tales you lose, okay?"

"Okay!"

Mickey scoffed, even _he_ knew that one. He'd been tricked by his older brother Iggy four too many times...

Lip flicked the coin up and slapped it down onto the back of his hand.

"Head's I win!" 

Ian groaned hard.

"Come on Ian i'm sure it's not _that_ bad, just knock ask for the ball back!...nicely."

He only nodded in reply and began to make his way back through the house to knock on the door.

"Shit" Mickey murmured, making his way downstairs before the knock could awaken his dad. As soon as Ian's knuckles came in contact with the wood, Mickey opened the front door.

 

 

 


End file.
